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How to Mint an NFT: Complete Beginner's Guide [4 Easy Steps]
There are several NFT markets for you to browse, buy, and sell NFT collections. If you are new to the NFT space, you might have heard of the term NFT MINTING.
What exactly is MINTING an NFT, and how does it work?
Minting NFT Art: The Definition
Simply put, minting an NFT means to create and sell NFTs on NFT marketplaces.
If you want to create digital art and put it up on the Ethereum blockchain, you are MINTING IT.
FUN FACT: NFTs are stored on the Ethereum blockchain, a peer-to-peer network that runs on a decentralized protocol. This supports a specific NFT token standard.
Once the NFT art has been minted, the creator can now put it up for sale on any of the NFT platforms!
How to Mint an NFT: The 4-Step Process
So you want to know how to mint NFTs, eh?
Don’t worry! The NFT minting process is easy and only takes a few steps!
1. NFT Creation
Before minting your own NFT, you need to CREATE an NFT asset. This is when you make your artwork or image, and it can be ANYTHING you want it to be.
Since there are a lot of digital artists with different styles in the NFT ecosystem, this is your chance to make your NFT stand out!
Let your CREATIVITY run wild!
Read more: How To Create NFT
2. Purchase Ethereum
Once you have an image asset you would like to put up for sale, you will need the cryptocurrency ETHEREUM (ETH) to put it on the market.
You can easily purchase ETH with a cryptocurrency exchange like COINBASE, so let’s use that as an example.
- Download the Coinbase app and create a free account.
- Fill in the appropriate details, and once everything is set up, you can now buy all sorts of cryptocurrency, including ETH!
3. Create a Crypto Wallet
Once you have ETH, you will need a wallet to store it. To do this, transfer your ETH into your DIGITAL WALLET. You can use Coinbase’s digital wallet for this one.
Other popular digital wallets include MetaMask, and you can transfer your ETH from your Coinbase to MetaMask with the same process.
- Copy your wallet address, enter the amount you want to send, and paste the address of your wallet on Coinbase to send the ETH. You will eventually receive the amount you transferred to your wallet.
- Select ETHEREUM on Coinbase, and set it to SEND.
- Then click on your MetaMask wallet, click BUY, scroll to DIRECTLY DEPOSIT ETHER, and click VIEW ACCOUNT.
- Copy the wallet address and paste it onto Coinbase. Coinbase will then send your ETH to your MetaMask wallet!
4. Choose an NFT Marketplace and Mint an NFT
Now that you have Ethereum and a wallet to store it, you can now choose a decentralized app (or marketplace) to sell and mint NFTs.
OPENSEA is probably the largest NFT marketplace, so let’s use that as an example. Other popular NFT marketplaces to mint NFTs include Rarible and Mintable.
- Go to opensea.io, and you will be asked to sign in to your wallet. MetaMask is the default wallet, but you also can sign in using your Coinbase Wallet.
- Once you have signed in, click on your COLLECTIONS, and click CREATE. Upload your collection logo and click “Create.”
- Once you have an NFT collection set up, you can fill it up with your artwork! Click ADD ITEMS, and ADD NEW ITEM.
- Upload your digital art, give it a cool name and description, and click CREATE (or MINT NFT, depending on the site you are using).
Once uploaded, the image is stored on IPFS (Interplanetary File System), which houses data in a distributed file system.
SUCCESS! Your NFT is now on the NFT marketplace for sale and with proof of ownership!
How to Mint an NFT Using Web3 (Advanced Tutorial)
IMPORTANT NOTE: This guide is suitable for advanced users familiar with executing codes and functions.
Web3 is a library used for creating REQUESTS and interacting with the Ethereum blockchain. We will use Alchemy Web3 for this.
1. Install Web 3 and in your project home directory, run the following:
- npm install @alch/alchemy-web3
2. Create a Mint-NFT.js file in your scripts directory with the following lines.
- require(“dotenv”).config();
- const API_URL = process.env.API_URL;
- const { createAlchemyWeb3 } = require(“@alch/alchemy-web3”);
- const web3 = createAlchemyWeb3(API_URL);
3. You need your Contract ABI (Application Binary Interface), which shows how you interact with a smart contract on Ethereum. Add this line to your mint-nft.js file.
- const contract = require(“../artifacts/contracts/MyNFT.sol/MyNFT.json”);
Run this line to see your ABI and run your mint-nft.js file.
- node scripts/mint-nft.js
4. The mintNFT smart contract function creates a tokenURI, which is an identifier of your token.
Your NFT is created by a JSON document describing the metadata. Use PINATA to upload an image and generate the metadata.
Once you upload your image, it will generate a link, which is your BASE URL.
To generate the metadata, make a .json file in your root directory describing the traits of your NFT. The following json code is an example:
You will have to do this for each image if you have multiple. Upload it to Pinata when you are finished.
5. Next, to interact with the contract, copy your contract address which you can get from Etherscan. To get the Web3 contract in your mint-nft.js file, add:
- const contractAddress = “(copied contract address here)”;
- const nftContract = new web3.eth.Contract(contract.abi, contractAddress);
6. Then update the .env file. You will use your public Ethereum account address to access the account nonce, which keeps track of the number of transactions made by a certain address.
The updated .env file should look something like this.
- API_URL = “https://eth-ropsten.alchemyapi.io/v2/your-api-key”
- PRIVATE_KEY = “your-private-account-address”
- PUBLIC_KEY = “your-public-account-address”
7. Set up your transaction. Get your PUBLIC and PRIVATE keys from the .env file. Then set up your transaction by using the following codes in your mint-nft. js file:
- ‘from’: PUBLIC_KEY :
- ‘to’: contractAddress :
- ‘nonce’: nonce :
- ‘gas’: estimatedGas :
- ‘maxPriorityFeePerGas’: ‘data’: nftContract.methods.mintNFT(PUBLIC_KEY, tokenURI).encodeABI() :
8. Sign the transaction with your private key and send it off. To get the transaction hash, use the line “web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction”.
You can check the transaction signing section if your transaction was successful with no errors.
9. Go back to the metadata.json file you uploaded on Pinata and copy its HASHCODE by right-clicking the three dots on the right and selecting COPY HASH.
Your code should look like this:
1. The hash of your transaction is: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2. Check Alchemy’s Mempool to view the status of your transaction!
And there you go! You have minted an NFT using Web3!
Conclusion
Minting NFTs is a pretty big and cost-heavy deal.
Before minting your first digital artwork, always consider your finances and the risks that come with putting it up on the blockchain.
NFTs have changed how digital collectors collect digital artworks and how art is sold to consumers.
Nowadays, screenshotting and saving images to our desktop is easy, but having OFFICIAL RECORDED OWNERSHIP is another story.
